Ethylbenzene oxidation over hybrid metalloporphyrin@silica nanocomposite microspheres

• Metalloporphyrins were encapsulated in hollow silica microspheres.
• Hollow silica microspheres were prepared using Fe3O4 as hard templates.
• MnCP@SiO2 exhibits high activity for oxidation of ethylbenzene.
• This catalyst possesses attractive stability than their homogeneous counterpart.

In this work, manganese porphyrins were immobilized on hybrid nanocomposite microspheres through amide bond using Fe3O4 as hard templates. The catalyst was characterized by N2 adsorption–desorption isotherm (BET specific surface area), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and ultraviolet and visible spectroscopy (UV–vis) analysis. The results showed the average size of the hybrid nanocomposite microspheres is 450 nm in diameter and the supported metalloporphyrin catalysts remained reactive after removing Fe3O4 leaving the silica support with micropores. The catalytic performance of the as-prepared catalysts without Fe3O4 core instead of with the core was significantly enhanced as a result of the homogeneous catalysis in a heterogeneous catalyst, and the conversion of ethylbenzene was up to 22.9%. The catalyst also possessed high stability, and could be reused 6 times without remarkable loss of the catalytic activity, compared to the unsupported counterpart.

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